VANCOUVER — It’s being compared to everything from a pagoda and a stack of Bento boxes to a stylized totem pole and a welcome figure.

The release of the new conceptual design for the Vancouver Art Gallery created a stir on social media Tuesday as people commented about the new building proposed for a site now being used as a parking lot across from the Queen Elizabeth Theatre on West Georgia.

Resting on four stilt-like pillars, the new gallery building would have three floors dedicated to a restaurant and auditorium sandwiched between exhibition space above and below. The design has been described as transparent, open and inviting.

The building’s dynamic and distinctive form comes from the way the different levels are stacked on top of one another to create covered spaces that are protected from the rain yet still open to sunlight.

The VAG’s much-anticipated conceptual design by Swiss architectural firm Herzog & de Meuron was released at a news conference in the current gallery’s home at 750 Hornby. Later in the day, the public had a chance to see a presentation on the new design at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre.

The new gallery would cover two-thirds of the entire city-owned block. The remainder of the site along Dunsmuir is intended for future development. The VAG hopes the gallery will be built by 2021.

The Vancouver Sun on Monday received a preview of the conceptual design with Christine Binswanger, the lead architect, and Kathleen Bartels, the gallery’s director.

Unlike many art galleries, the new VAG rises vertically on the site rather than horizontally.

Binswanger said the design comes out of wanting to create something that’s lacking in Vancouver: covered outdoor spaces that are usable year-round.

“But also we wanted to go into the vertical because this a city that is all about verticality,” she said. “You want to give the experience of being high up to the public that visits this gallery.”

The transparency comes from the glass covering the exterior of the 350-seat auditorium and restaurant levels in the middle section. When people are in the foyer and on the covered patio, their presence is expected to animate those spaces and be visible to those outside.

The building’s warm brown colour comes from the use of wood on the exterior on the upper levels.

It was the use of wood that artist Jeff Wall singled out for praise at the news conference.

“When was the last time anybody saw a wooden building go up in the centre of the city of Vancouver?” said Wall, an internationally renowned artist who was not only born and raised in Vancouver but also lives and works here.

“I spent my childhood and youth watching it disappear.”

He described the use of wood as “an artistic achievement.”

He went on to say that artists throughout B.C. are “desperately optimistic about this project.

“I think artists think this is an important development that the city needs and deserves this place,” he said. “(They believe) it will have an enormous impact on what happens in the arts, in the province and in the country.”

Wall was on the VAG’s selection committee that choose Herzog & de Meuron.

Trevor Boddy, an architectural critic who was at the news conference, said afterward that he is “super ecstatic” about the building’s use of wood.

Not only are architects and engineers in B.C. at the forefront of pushing wood technology forward, the Swiss are also world leaders in using wood in buildings, he said.

“Herzog & de Meuron comes from a place that does everything in wood; that’s absolutely terrific. We’re so typically Canadian, we don’t celebrate our best material and our best legacy.”

Paul Wong, one of the artists on the VAG’s artist advisory committee, said the conceptual plan is for a modest gallery that has lots of accessible public spaces outside and numerous kinds of spaces inside.

“I think there is tremendous support for this new gallery,” he said. “People want it.”

The proposed gallery would have 86,000 square feet of exhibition space — about double the amount available at the Vancouver Art Gallery. Of that, a little less than half will be dedicated to showing the permanent collection of more than 10,000 works. In the new gallery, some of the exhibition spaces will be free to the public.

Bartels said the design is meant to be approachable and accessible.

“That’s why the transparency is very important,” she said.

“We have an open air courtyard so people can walk through it and feel comfortable. We want it to be that gathering space that people come for not only events but also just to hang out.”

At the lower levels would be two storeys of gallery space: one below ground lit with clerestory-style windows and another at ground level.

Above the three transparent floors are another three floors of exhibition space. Just below the mechanical block at the top are two floors that are being left undeveloped for future expansion.

The new gallery would have state of the art equipment such as a massive art elevator. New equipment would allow the VAG to hold shows by artists such as Richard Serra and Anish Kapoor, who are known for making physically big and heavy works.

Pointing to drawings and architectural renderings of the new design, Binswanger said the building has a one-story frame on the ground floor that is intended to create an active, human scale along the street. The openness at ground level, she said, and the low-level frame recall the wooden houses that once surrounded the site when it was known as Larwill Park in the early 20th century.

The proposed building has entry points to the courtyard from all four directions.

To create a strong presence westward along West Georgia, the design proposes to modify the Queen Elizabeth plaza by lowering it to the same level as the street. The plaza would become a tree-covered green space with the steps moved closer to the theatre.

Altogether, the building would be 12 storeys in height, of which seven would be used by the public.